Wildfire News Of The Day (the Firebomber Publications blog) provides comprehensive international wildfire news. Subscribers include over 10,000 personnel from fire agencies, contractors, and government entities on five continents. "BEST NEWSLETTER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY 32 YEARS IN THE FIRE SERVICE" - San Diego Fire Department Chief Brian Fennessy.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 013013

President Obama was attacked by a Fox News co-host for
remarks made in his second inaugural address that linked wildfires in the
western US to climate change (1); while Wildfire NOTD subscriber Caroline
Brown, who handles Public Relations for the Southern California-based SierraMadre Fire Safe Council, sent along a
letter
from Rick Halsey, Founder of the San Diego-based Chaparral Institute addressed to the California Board of
Forestry and Fire Protection regarding their plans to perform what many
consider excessive thinning of vegetation in an effort to reduce wildfires (2).
Utah's Target Shooting and Wildfire Regulations bill, which aims to reduce the
danger of wildfires sparked by target shooting, was discussed in the state
senate yesterday (3); even as a shooter faced misdemeanor charges for starting
a 4-acre blaze last year near Payson (4). In Texas, Cedar Park Fire Department
earned a $20,000 wildfire gear windfall from Firehouse Subs Public Safety
Foundation (5); but a man arrested for looting a home in Musselshell
County, Montana, that had been evacuated during a July wildfire has been sentenced (6).
Alabama Forestry Commission arrested a man for setting three wildfires in
Baldwin County (7). Firefighters in Bay County, Florida, are monitoring a
4-acre wildfire that briefly threatened homes (8); while the Florida Highway
Patrol reminded drivers to exercise caution during wildfires on the anniversary
of a deadly Interstate 75 crash between Ocala and Gainesville caused by
wildfire smoke (9); even as recent wildfires sparked concerns about
the upcoming dry season across the region (10). As fire crews continued to
grapple with veld fires in South Africa, the next item provides some photos
from the firelines (11); and although most bushfires in the vicinity of
Auckland, New Zealand, have been extinguished, a bushfire on the Great Barrier
Island continues to burn (12). Fire crews in Victoria, Australia, have
finally contained the 1,300-hectare bushfire burning in rugged terrain outside
of Violet Town (13); but a septuagenarian has been charged with starting a
75,000-hectare bushfire in Aberfeldy that killed one man and destroyed 22 homes
(14). A resident of Mudgeeraba, Queensland, is fighting a $375 fine levied by
the Gold Coast City Council after he cleared up debris that posed a
bushfire threat to his property (15). A British expat recounted his terrifying
experience with the bushfire that scorched New South Wales' Warrumbungles
National Park (16); while folks in Mudgee threw another wiener on the barbie to
help raise money for a bushfire appeal organized to help bushfire survivors in
Coonabarabran (17). A South Australian beekeeper lost 40 hives to a bushfire
that raced through Bundaleer Forest (18); but farmers are still waiting for
bushfire relief funds worth $25,000 in Tasmania's Central Highlands (19). And
finally, firefighters in Scottsdale, Arizona, had a tricky extrication to
perform: getting a dog out of an underground tortoise den!